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Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

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Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#81

Post by kashunstva »

kurisufag wrote: post #3

>A woman one block away had called the cops to report a boy walking outside alone. That lady had actually asked Aiden where he lived, verified that it was just down the street, and proceeded to call nonetheless. The cops picked up Aiden on his own block. this is the real problem here. who in their right mind calls the cops on a kid walking around his own neighborhood?

> who in their right mind calls the cops on a kid walking around his own neighborhood?

The profoundly innumerate, that’s who. They overestimate the risk of an adverse event because they rely solely on media reports of child safety events to anchor their estimates, never stopping to consider that the media doesn’t report on children safely walking home.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#82

Post by demilicious »

mox1 wrote: post #27
bradlys wrote: post #19

Police just power tripping as usual. I wonder why they don't name and shame the officers - clearly these are the people doing wrong and should be removed from their positions.

The local DA is the person to look to here. Cops don't persecute cases. Clearly the cops started this stupid ball rolling, but anyone at the local attorneys office could have just chosen not to persecute. Instead they offered the plea deal.

DAs don't have cases to prosecute if cops don't make the arrest.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#83

Post by jonnycomputer »

I'm afraid that I've become hesitant to call the cops even when an intervention is required (e.g. minor theft, a person is walking around disoriented, etc.), for fear that someone will get shot or beaten or otherwise have their lives ruined. I don't want to think that way. It's why I think ordinary cops shouldn't carry guns.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#84

Post by mandmandam »

mlindner wrote: post #40
josefresco wrote: post #8

I'm not sure (correct me if I'm wrong) but doesn't the district attorney have the ability to drop the charges or not pursue the case? If CPS dropped the case, why didn't the DA?

The DA's role to win as many cases as they can. They only drop cases they don't think they can win. Threatening people with charges if they don't take plea deals is an easy way for them to win. That's what led to a news item last year of some immigrant truck driver getting over 100 years in prison (plus mandatory minimums) because he didn't take a plea deal after his breaks failed and he hit a car and killed some peo…

That's not actually their role. It's not what we pay them to do.

It may be how they view their role, and it may be how their incentives line up.

But it's not actually their job. I bet you know this, I'm just clarifying.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#85

Post by beaned »

uoflcards22 wrote: post #53
beaned wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to be the one parent out of a thousand who has their kid scooped up off the street because they were letting their kid explore and be free. Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted, this comment isn't a judgment on anyone or promoting any type of child-rearing philosophy. It's just an obvious truth. Nobody wants to be that parent, and that obviously influences behavior.

Your kid is 3x more likely to be struck by lightning than kidnapped. Literally.

I'm not sure of the statistics, but even so, it's something you have more control over than a lightning strike.

Edit: at first glance I'm not sure the numbers are right...

Google says: "Lightning damage in the U.S. [...] In 2021, there were a total of 11 fatalities and 69 injuries reported due to lighting in the United States."

Also: "In the United States, an estimated 460,000 children are reported missing every year. Federal Bureau of Investigation, NCIC."

Edit again to be more specific: Many of the "goes missing" doesn't mean kidnaps, and according to wikipedia, "The vast majority of child abduction cases in the United States are parental kidnapping".

However it also says: "Fewer than 350 people under the age of 21 have been abducted by strangers in the United States per year, on average, between 2010–2017."

This number is still a high multiple of the number of people (not just children) struck by lightning each year.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#86

Post by Arrath »

nineplay wrote: post #38

> As they stood on her porch, the officers told Wallace that her son could have been kidnapped and sex trafficked. "'You don't see much sex trafficking where you are, but where I patrol in downtown Waco, we do,'" said one of the cops, according to Wallace > "I still didn't know it was illegal and I said, 'I don't know,'" says Wallace. "That's when the cop replied, 'Okay, I'm going to have to arrest you.'" Let's quick…

>> > As they stood on her porch, the officers told Wallace that her son could have been kidnapped and sex trafficked. "'You don't see much sex trafficking where you are, but where I patrol in downtown Waco, we do,'" said one of the cops, according to Wallace

Then go downtown and.. do some police work? What the hell man, stop harassing an innocent mother.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#87

Post by fitblipper »

The problem is CPS/DCS. They are a lawless organization that can take your child at based solely on their feelings at the moment and not from "probable cause", "reasonable suspicion" or any of the other standards that police are generally held to. In practice that means any neighbor can report anything they don't like about your parenting and it will be acted on just because a child is involved. This leads to the parents with the most strict and overly protective and cautious parenting strategy having their methods enforced by law since they can report anything they are a little uncomfortable with in other's parenting.

Why have we decided that the legal protections granted to us are only sometimes good? Why have we built in this loophole where if an accuser says the magic word "child" to the authorities they can remove our rights? When a kid is involved simply asking for a lawyer to help you understand your rights can be seen as trying to restrict access to the kid and can result in them being taken by CPS.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#88

Post by geoffeg »

uoflcards22 wrote: post #53
beaned wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to be the one parent out of a thousand who has their kid scooped up off the street because they were letting their kid explore and be free. Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted, this comment isn't a judgment on anyone or promoting any type of child-rearing philosophy. It's just an obvious truth. Nobody wants to be that parent, and that obviously influences behavior.

Your kid is 3x more likely to be struck by lightning than kidnapped. Literally.

So we shouldn't allow children to go outside where the lightning could get them! (/s, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone seriously believes it is what we should do..)

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#89

Post by cbsmith »

CodeMage wrote: post #41
pavon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be people who overreact and call the police for inappropriate reasons. That isn't the problem. The problem is that the police, and then the DA, chose to make this a criminal matter. Either of them could and should have dismissed the issue after verifying that the child was not being put into a harmful environment.

> There will always be people who overreact and call the police for inappropriate reasons. That isn't the problem. It's not the problem, but it is a problem. There's no reason we shouldn't try to work on both. > The problem is that the police, and then the DA, chose to make this a criminal matter. Either of them could and should have dismissed the issue after verifying that the child was not being put into a harmful…

> It's not the problem, but it is a problem. There's no reason we shouldn't try to work on both.

There's problems, and then there's unavoidable problems. Failure to design a system with checks and balances for the unavoidable problem is an avoidable problem. ;-)

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